Message 4 of 4
Posted by member colin on Monday 16 September 2019

Hi John, that looks very well done, I have seen a few variations on the theme of box enclosure, some to varying degrees of aesthetic appearance.
For me, I think the best looking and finished one I have ever seen was a large plastic (or fibreglass?) collar that fitted just below the power head and sealed to the top of the stern moulding, it looked very neat and tidy but have no idea where it will have been obtained from, it didn’t look DIY!
It shouldn’t be too difficult to fabricate a flat two piece collar out of some suitable material to do the same job and seal off the top of the outboard well, some form of white plastic /acrylic sheet? The intent would be to act as a baffle keep the majority of the water in the well.

Good luck with it anyway!

Col (& Angie)

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Message 2 of 4
Posted by member Colin on Tuesday 10 September 2019

Hi John, we are also seeking an MS18 and the outboard well issue is a concern to me, (see my question in the magazine message board) It's my concern that a following sea may enter via the well, indeed I had a similar incident happen to me on a much larger 27 foot motor cruiser on Loch Ness some time ago when the following current began to swamp the cockpit area and that had a far greater 'freeboard' than the couple of inches on a MS18.
I have seen a number of attempts to reduce this, one is as you say to enclose the motor head, another is to fit a collar below the motor head (providing there is sufficient room, another is addition of foam or baffles around the motor leg/ lining the outboard well itself - not sure how efficient any of these will be.
This may be more a problem on a boat with a hull design speed of 6 knots where often you may have a following sea of greater speed or a very choppy sea.
Outboard wells on the Hardy Motor boats appear much larger and deeper, so may not suffer this!
Good luck!

Col (& Angie)

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